The Studio
Four stars
Water is everywhere in this remarkable collaboration between indigenous artists from North and South America, which charts how the planet’s natural resources are plundered and entire ecosystems destroyed in the name of greed. From Canada, and with Anishinabe and French roots, Émilie Monnet stands side by side with Waira Nina, who is Inga, and from the Colombian Amazon. The title of the play in each of their respective languages means ‘song’, and this is exactly what emerges over this ninety-minute work that is part sound installation, part durational ritual.
The audience are seated on cushions around rock pools and foliage in a fully immersive unspoilt idyll. Monnet and Nina move in and around this, utilising sound baths drawn from the natural environment. The pair caw and spar as they re-enact birdsong. They pile rock on top of rock in a room where even the hot air itself seems to breathe.
When the sound of machines invades the air, however, that idyll is torn in two, and the old ways are threatened out of existence. As the voices of a radio commentary make clear in an otherwise largely wordless construction, the mining of precious copper will upset the entire ecosystem, and the world will change forever.
This makes for a haunting meditation by Monnet and Nina, who use sound and vision in a purely holistic but utterly committed way that seems to cross continents and oceans in a slow burning declaration of solidarity. Working with a small army of designers across all disciplines, Monnet and Nina have created a work of total beauty that manages to be both profound and provocative in intent.
Julie Christina Picher’s all encompassing set design is a wonder in itself, lit with a sense of shimmering transcendence by Chantal Labonté. A sound team led by Frannie Holderand Frédéric Auger pulse the show’s mesmeric drive in what evolves into an urgent sonic poem. Produced by a trio of Montreal based organisations -Productions ONISHKA, Festival TransAmériques and Espace GO – Monnet and Nina’s vital collaboration suggests there may be hope yet for the global village we inhabit.
The Herald, August 19th 2024
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